Process of producing artificial woods



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID LYNN, OF ATHENS, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL WOODS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,979, dated May 30,1899.

Application filed November 5, 1898. Serial No. 695,628. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, DAVID LYNN, a citizen of the United States, residingat Athens, in the county of Bradford and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of ProducingOrnamental Woods, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its object to ornament the surface of wood bygiving thereto an appearance different from that which the wood wouldhave if finished in its natural color and as cut from the block orpiece, whereby an in: ferior grade of wood may be given the appearanceof a more valuable wood or a piece of wood cut straight and with thegrain may be given the appearance of being quartered.

My invention has especially for its object' to render possible asimulation of the grain of the Wood sought to be imitated more nearlyperfect than it has heretofore been possible to attain by any of theprocesses now in vogue. This and other advantages, which will behereinafter pointed out, are secured by my invention, which consists ina novel process of woodsurface treatment and a new article ofmanufacture-the result of such process.

I am aware that heretofore many processes have been proposed and adoptedfor the purpose of giving to the dressed surface of a piece of wood theappearance, more or less perfect, of a different wood from that treated.This has been done, according to one system, by the graining process,where the wood surface is painted to represent the wood sought to besimulated, especial care and attention being given in this system to therepresentation of the grain of the wood by paint-marks. By this processthe natural color and the grain of the wood are entirely hidden by thepaint employed, and, moreover, it does not permit of the dressing orrubbing down of the surface with sandpaper and pumice-stone after thepaint has been applied and as a preparatory step to the varnishing.

Another system now in vogue depends upon staining thewood surface togive to it the color of the wood soughtto be imitated, leaving thenatural grain of the wood to appear, no attempt being made to representthe peculiar fibration of the wood represented. This system is onlysatisfactory in so far as it gives a resemblance in color, and theimitation can be immediately detected by one skilled in woods, as thecharacteristic grain or fiber arrangement of the wood represented islacking.

I have discovered that if to the dressed surface of a piece of woodthere be applied a coating of some material which is impervious toWood-filler or to Wood-stain, or to both, and which therefore acts as tothese as a stoppingcoat, the said stopping-coat being so applied as tomore or less but not completely cover the entire wood surface, and thatthereafter the Wood surface be treated with wood-filler manner followedin finishing wood, the stain or filler does not enter into the body ofthe Wood to the same extent wher'e the said coating has been applied asit does where the coating has not been applied, with the result that theappearance of the wood where the coating has been applied isdifferentfrom what it is at other places. It will therefore be apparcut that ifthe said stopping-coat be applied according to a design, such as therepresenta tion of a wood grain or fiber arrangement, then in thefinished Wood an artificial or apparent grain will appear. The change inthe appearance of the wood incident to the application of such coatingwill depend both upon the kind of wood being treated and upon thecomposition of the stopping-coat used, and this I will describe somewhatin detail hereinafter. The stopping-coat or grain-representing materialwhich I have found best suited to the purposes of my invention is onewhich enters into the body of the wood as well as serves as animpervious medium to prevent the full action of the subsequently-appliedfiller or other material employed in finishing the surface of the wood.When such a material is used, the surface of the wood may be rubbed downafter it has been applied without destroying its elfect. Indeed I havefound that the best results are obtained by rubbing down the wood afterthe stopping-coat has been applied and before the filler is used.

Among the materials which I have employed in carrying out my inventionfor the stoppingcoat are glue, size, varnish, and shellac. The mostsatisfactory results, however, are obtained by the use of shellac.

I will now describe in detail several methods of carrying my processinto effect.

To make an imitation of quartered oak, I preferably use oak cut straightor with the grain. The surface of the wood is smoothed and thereupon ismarked out or delineated in the stopping-coat material, which ispreferably applied with a brush, a representation of the fiber orwood-grain arrangement which is cha acteristic of quartered oak. Ipreferably use shellac for this purpose, as this material quicklyentersinto the body of the wood and dries and is impervious to wood-filler.The wood surface thus treated is rubbed down, as would be done were thenatural finish to be given to the wood, the filler is then applied, andthe surface-dressing completed in the usual manner. The material used asa stopping-coating in marking the wood surface may be stained or not, asdesired, and this is also true of the filler employed. If a whiteshellac be used as the stopping-coat, the natural color of the wood ispreserved at the places where it is applied, and in that event a coloredfiller may be used to give an antique or a golden-oak finish. On theother hand, if the shellac be slightly darkened the filler may be leftclear and white, in which event the artificial grain will show darkerthan the other parts of the wood.

In making an imitation of birds-eye maple any kind of white wood may beused, preferably one in which the grain of the wood is not very distinctor marked. The surface of the wood being smoothed,the eyes arerepresented thereupon, the shellac used for this purpose beingpreferably slightly darkened with lampblack, logwood, or other suitablematerial; The shellac or other stopping-coat material is also preferablyquite thin, so that the solvent which is used therein runs slightly intothe body of the wood around the spot or eye which has been marked on thewood. It a coloring substance be used for the shellac which does notstain the solvent thereof, the effect is that around each eye, which isslightly darker than the body of the wood, there is a lighter-shadedirregular ring, thus giving to the wood an exceedingly naturalappearance. The eyes bein g thus formed, the surface is rubbed down,filled, and finished in the usual manner.

In making a representation of woods wherein the grain-markings are verydistinct and of a darker shade than the body of the wood, such asmahogany or French walnut, either a light or a dark colored wood may beused. The surface of the wood is smoothed and prepared, and the shellacor other coating material employed is applied to the surface, so as torepresentthe grain or wood-marking sought to be imitated. The materialused is colored or stained such a shade or color as will give to thewood the color of the grain or fiber of the natural wood being imitated,the substance used as a stain or coloring material being preferably onewhich will stain or color the solvent of the coating material, so thatas the solvent spreads out into the boby of the wood from the markingswhich have been placed on the surface of the wood the color will becarried with it, thus giving a shaded effect to the imitation grain orfiber which is exceedinglynaturalin appearance. Thestopping-coat havingthus been applied and allowed to dry,the surface of the wood is rubbeddown, which operation, as will be understood, does not remove the saidcoating material, but rather improves its effect, and the wood-filler isapplied, this being colored to impart to the wood surface the color ofthe wood beingimitated. This colored fiber does not act upon the wood tothe same extent where the stopping-coat has been applied as it does atother parts, so that the artificial grain remains as first applied. Thewood is finished and polished with varnish and oil in the usual manner.

It should be understood that wood-filler and wood-stain are theequivalents one of the other so far as my invention is concerned, thestopping-coat which is employed to represent the grain or wood fiberacting as a resist or stop to the entrance of one or both of thesematerials, according as they may be used.

'After the wood -dressing materials have been applied, by which I referto the stoppingcoat material, the wood-filler, and the woodstain, thewood surface may be finished in any of the many methods now well knownand practiced, it being rubbed down and varnish or oil, or both, beingused in such finishing operation, as may be thought most desirable.

Vhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. In the artof ornamenting wood surfaces, the herein-described process whichconsists in applying to the smoothed surface of the wood a stopping-coataccording to adesired design, thereafter rubbing down such surface, thenapplying a wood-filler to the entire surface of the wood being treated,and then finishingin the usual manner, substantially as set forth.

2. In the art of ornamentin g wood surfaces, the herein-describedprocess which consists in drawing or marking upon a smoothed woodsurface a design in a material which enters the body of the wood andalso acts as a resist or stopping coat to subsequentlyappliedwood-dressings, thereafter rubbing down the entire surface of the wood,and finally dressing and polishing the wood in the usual manner,substantially as set forth.

3. The herein-described process which consists in applying to thesmoothed surface of wood shellac according to a desired design, thenrubbing down the wood, and then filling the wood surface, and finishingwith a varnish coating covering both the coated and the filled portionsof the surface in an ordinary manner, substantially as set forth.

4. The herein-described process which consists in applying to thesmoothed surface of Wood a stopping-coat according to a desired design,the material of such coating containing a liquid which spreads into thebody of the wood around the markings which produce the said design andthereafter applying to the entire wood surface a filler, and finishingwith varnish in the usual manner, substantially as set forth.

5. The herein-described process which consists in drawing or markinguponthe smoothed surface of Wood a design in a material which acts as astopping-coat to the subsequently applied wood-dressing substances, suchmaterial containing a liquid which spreads into the body of the wood andcolors it, and thereafter finishing the wood-surface treatment withfiller, smoothing and polishing materials in the usual manner,substantially as set forth.

DAVID LYNN. Witnesses:

N. O. HARRIS,

JosEPH M. ELY.

